Many years ago there was a brief TV show which had as its highlight talking dogs. The dogs’ owners had trained their pets to utter sounds that sounded like a faint echo of human speech. After being prompted for a minute or so the dog would utter sound that sounded like a distorted version of human speech. The one word that I remember a dog sounding out was “hamburger.” And the crowd applauded.
I was reminded of that after Obama gave his acceptance speech at Oslo’s Nobel Peace ceremony today. In it, the President of the United States stopped, just for few minutes apologizing for America and defended our role in the world. And the crowd (the American crowd, not the one in Norway) went wild.
Why?
Because we have been conditioned to hear Obama tell us what a rotten country the US has been until He ascended to the Presidency. So to hear him say that America has defended freedom in the years before he became the country’s leader was a bit of a shock. Sort of like hearing that dog, so many years ago, utter a word the sounded like human speech.
Has Obama been transformed into a Kennedy, a Reagan, a Bush? Alas, no, because for the rest of the speech he recounted how he has transformed this sinful nation. There appear to be some who are so desperate to validate their belief in Obama that one speech, at a forum of "... well dressed European Lefty Twits", has changed the man who had – as his spiritual advisor – Jeremiah Wright, and as his political associate (and possible ghost writer) - Bill Ayers.
The need to believe that everything is normal is very strong.
I was reminded of that after Obama gave his acceptance speech at Oslo’s Nobel Peace ceremony today. In it, the President of the United States stopped, just for few minutes apologizing for America and defended our role in the world. And the crowd (the American crowd, not the one in Norway) went wild.
Why?
Because we have been conditioned to hear Obama tell us what a rotten country the US has been until He ascended to the Presidency. So to hear him say that America has defended freedom in the years before he became the country’s leader was a bit of a shock. Sort of like hearing that dog, so many years ago, utter a word the sounded like human speech.
Has Obama been transformed into a Kennedy, a Reagan, a Bush? Alas, no, because for the rest of the speech he recounted how he has transformed this sinful nation. There appear to be some who are so desperate to validate their belief in Obama that one speech, at a forum of "... well dressed European Lefty Twits", has changed the man who had – as his spiritual advisor – Jeremiah Wright, and as his political associate (and possible ghost writer) - Bill Ayers.
The need to believe that everything is normal is very strong.
1 comment:
After committing 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, what could he say? This reminds of the old, "what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive".
His political realities, the consequense of his own campaign rhetoric forced his hand, and his hand now forces his words. I do wonder how difficult it was for him to deliver those words.
Yet he redeemed himself to himself by finishing his speech reminding us that after all, his ways are superior to those dolts who came before him.
The leopard still has his spots.
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